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At the end of the day Linus is making a very clearcut threat here: "if you harbor a particular idea on this topic then I believe you have no right to exist and

At the end of the day Linus is making a very clearcut threat here: "if you harbor a particular idea on this topic then I believe you have no right to exist and should end your life immediately". That's wholly out of bounds in a technical discussion. Especially coming from a person in a position of ultimate power.

zeroname_ 8y ago
First of all, the whole thing is hyperbole. Linus doesn't actually believe people should kill themselves over holding that particular opinion, which no actual person holds anyway. Secondly, you added that "you have no right to exist" part yourself. It comes from your imagination, not Linus Torvalds. Lastly, it wasn't a technical discussion. It wasn't on a mailing list. It was a random personal Google Plus post where Linus vented about some annoyance he faced using an actual Linux distribution (OpenSUSE). Obviously he's not in a position of "ultimate power" because he can't force the OpenSUSE guys to change that annoying behavior for him.